


When Office Plants Die

by DorisNancyGrey



Series: A Man is What He Hides [1]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: A/B/O, Alpha Steve, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Fingering, Biting, Feral Behavior, Haha Jeeze laying all these tags out makes me not feel like a lady, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, Hurt Steve McGarrett, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mildly Dubious Consent, Nothing phases Joe White, Omega Danny, Possessive Behavior, Pre-Mpreg, Prostate Milking, Protective Steve McGarrett, References to Knotting, Rimming, Trapped In A Closet, mcdanno, mentions of mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-09 19:37:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5552654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DorisNancyGrey/pseuds/DorisNancyGrey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alpha Steve doesn't know why he can't sign off for one of his betas, Danny, to leave Five-0 and transfer to the mainlands. This curious issue leads to both a huge surprise and a dead office plant for McGarrett.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> **[NOTE: the first chapter has been altered/fixed on 2/22/2017. When I first wrote it two years ago I was proud of it. When I reread it, I hated it, and decided to add in additional material I had lying around in some dusty one drive files. As they say in my homeland, the South, "It's mo' better."]**  
>   
> 
>  
> 
> "Any request to transfer between departments or for temporary or permanent relocation to a law enforcement division of another state must be submitted to and approved by the department director, before said request can be offered up for a formal review by the State of Hawaii Board of Law Enforcement and Crime Prevention."  
> \-- _Hawaii General Statutes_ Title 18; Chapter 2; section 107(a)(3)(B)(ii) 
> 
>  
> 
> *NOTE: no Grace or Rachel in this universe.*
> 
> Comments are my motivation! I also love talking to people that share my passion for McDanno ;) so I try to respond.

xx 

 

Karaoke bars are never Steve’s top choice for meeting up with his team on a Saturday night. Still, the creaky, familiar booths in this easy going, hole-in-the-wall dive bar are deep and forgiving after a long day with the team, so Steve doesn't hate it. It’s just that he’s the only alpha in the group, so his ears are more sensitive to noise. The Karaoke singer's may think it’s music, but, let’s be honest, it’s noise, and the volume of said noise is directly correlated to how alcohol-fueled the singing bar patron’s confidence is.

 Accordingly, whenever Steve catches the scent of Jaeger and Red Bull on the college students’ regulars from across the room as they make their way on stage, he usually politely excuses himself to “make a phone call.” He really just walks out to lean against his truck in the parking lot and stars up at the stars. Danny follows him out sometimes, having caught on to Steve’s sudden cell-phone popularity every time they’re at one of these bars, and then it’s more fun. The alpha may or may not get more “phone calls” when Danny at the bar with him.

Tonight, though, there's some fierce competition going on between Max, the quirky but endearing coroner who has, as Danny tells him, a touch of the 'bergs, and Jerry, the newest official member of Five-0. Sensitive alpha ears be damned, you’d have to pay Steve to miss this. 

Their repertoire stems as usual from the lip-curled, pelvis gyrating talents of Elvis, and the alpha is pretty sure that he might have broken a rib laughing at the both fierce and awkward competition between the two Elvises (Or is it Elvi?). Steve suddenly feels Danny stand up from his side at the edge of the booth, and he looks up in question, eyes trailing up the tanned Jersey beta’s sleek, fitted dress shirt. 

"I'm ordering wings. You want another Longboard?" Danny yells down to him, grinning as Jerry croons ‘Hunk of Burnin Love’ from onstage. 

"Nah, I'm alright," Steve waves him off but thanks him, and wonders if Danny can feel his eyes lingering on his broad shoulders as he makes his way to the bar. Sure enough, like the guy has a sixth sense, he turns and catches Steve's eye.

The alpha ducks his head, feeling the tips of his ears heat up.

"Caught ya lookin'?" Kono grins mischievously over her mango daiquiri, and he thinks for a moment that she's referring to herself until her warm brown eyes tilt playfully toward Danny at the bar.

Steve frowns, shaking his head, but he feels his youngest beta's pink plastic daiquiri glass chime suddenly against the glass crown of his beer bottle. He looks up, shoulders tense, but she has the most disarming and genuine smile on her face as she shrugs as if to say, ‘would it really be so bad?’

"Not like I haven't caught myself staring."

What is it with this new generation, Steve thinks to himself. Sexual orientation is like a sliding scale to them. There's no way in hell he's anything but straight.

"Hey, you know what?" He smoothed his hands out, hovering them over the table and nearly hitting a Guinness that Chin, Kono's older and slightly more responsible cousin, has been working on for an hour. "He's my best friend, my sidekick," Steve says gruffly, leaving it at that.

"Everything a mate should be," Kono smirks at him.

The alpha rolls his eyes. "I'm sure he's hitting on some busty blonde tourist as we speak," Steve offers playfully, but the words leave a sour taste on his tongue and he glances over at Danny to see if it's true. The blonde is actually charming a waitress right now, but Danny uses that smile and bold New England charm to get quicker service at restaurants, and Steve has seen him do it before.

"Oh, and he's so good with kids," Kono nods like she's trying to sell him a new car. "You saw him last week, right? When that little four month old alpha pup was brought in to wait for social Services, and no one but Danny could get her to settle down? It was like magic. He’s some kind of tiny-flailing-human whisperer.”

Steve stares quietly down at his beer, starting to pull the label off with his short nails. "I saw him."

Steve had definitely seen him with the pup, and stared and stared and stared at him with the pup. Danny had snuggled her up in one of his half zip sweaters that was usually hanging on the coat rack inthe office (for when Jerry fucks with the thermostat).  As Danny held her against his chest, she nuzzled her little face into his neck where his scent gland would be if he were an alpha. The beta had been gently rocking on his feet, pacing back and forth past the open door of the break room until the baby girl felt calm and safe -- apparently for the first time in five hours -- and fell asleep against him, clutching his tie knot in her little hand. 'She was just scared,' Danny had mumbled softly when Steve had all but poked his head in the break room to ogle at his partner and his previously secret superpowers over pups.

It made the alpha in him both proud of Danny for his compassion and kindness, but also slightly hurt by the sight.

It meant that Danny was great with pups (which was very important to him for some reason and he wasn't going to think about why), but it also meant that Danny probably wanted to settle down and sire some pups one day. Which meant that he would want to settle down with an alpha female or a beta female to father a litter or two.

That part made him uneasy for some reason.

Kono's face is exuding a more serious demeanor when he looks up again in the beat of silence. "So are you and Cath over with?" She taps her glass with short gun calloused fingertips.

Steve blinks in surprise and thinks back on Cath, his ex-alpha girlfriend, and the viciousness of their fights that everyone had written off as "passion." He still appreciates her as a friend who knew what the Navy was like, just like Major Joe White, and he cares about her, but not like he used to. Not since... Well. This thing with Danny becoming an important of his life that he is absolutely not going to start referring to as anything with a label.

"She's still a friend, but alphas and alphas are a terrible mix. My parents figured that out long before my mother walked out," he replies, wondering why she's interested suddenly.

"A lot of Alphas won't even date betas, though," Kono adds quietly.

Steve raises his brows, "You mean betas won't date Alphas." Kono pulls a face sympathetically, and yeah, she knows it's true. He continues. "They think we're too intense."

She purses her lips, "I guess that's why Alphas always end up with each other."

He takes a sip of his beer. "It's why they always divorce too, can't stop riling each other up. But without Omegas around, and Betas holding out for Betas, that's how you end up a thirty three year old bachelor like myself."

Kono balks at him, "Your job is why you're single, because it's the same damn reason why we're all single."

"Well Cath is single again, isn't she? She's Navy, not Five-0. We’re all just career oriented people,” he sighs. “Have you seen her around lately?"

Kono brings up a hand to tuck hair behind her ear. "Well, I actually--"

Steve catches a whiff of that familiar cologne -- that smells sweeter suddenly -- and Danny is back at his side. He sits a bit closer than he had when he got up, and his left knee is flush against the outside of Steve's thigh, and the alpha tries to pretend he’s not oddly focused on that knee. His shoulders betray him, though, and automatically curl towards the small, mouthy detective.

He inhales another drag of Danny's scent and wonders why he usually can't pick up anything from him at all, which isn't usual for a beta.

"You driving me home, buddy?" Danny says loudly over a lemon pepper chicken wing, and Steve nods

"Sure, babe," he replies, half mocking the Jersey pet name, but Danny just smiles at him and nods, reaching excitedly for a large pitcher of Angry Orchard cider from the cute waitress who has just appeared, keening toward him flirtatiously.

"Thank you, gorgeous," he smiles, all white teeth and blue eyes and she bats her long lashes as she starts to glide gracefully to the next table.

Steve crumples his beer label in his fist as he notices Danny's eyes stray toward the girl's ass. "We can come get your car in the morning," he says loudly -- a bit too loudly -- and Danny snaps his head up.

And shit, well, It's obvious now that Steve wants Danny to sleep at his place on his couch. So he can keep an eye on him, Steve tells himself. He blames his alpha half for that, and there's no sense in trying to fight his own brain for trying to take care of his betas. At least Kono and Chin are deep in a conversation about something.

Danny waves him off, "I don't really need the Camaro tomorrow -- as long as I get to work on Monday morning." He pauses and glances around, "Not like this is a bad part of town to leave it in." The words hang in the air for a second and Steve's gut definitely does not tighten in excitement at the thought of hanging out until Monday.

The alpha tries to play it off. "I mean, yeah, you gotta go somewhere, let me know, huh?" He nods like it makes sense. "Only problem is that my clothes don't fit you, remember? You gonna wear a tie and slacks to go spearfishing in?" He points out quietly, leaning in close.

"You mean aren't gonna let me borrow your sacred Naval Academy tee shirts? Afraid I'll de-glory them?" He deadpans. "You probably wear them and jerk off in front of a mirror with warpaint on your face."

Steve leans back, raising up a hand at the ridiculous accusation. "Excuse me, No. You can't wear them because you're a mess when you eat, look at you; you've got more lemon pepper on you than that wing in your hand does. This is why you don't have the -- the privilege of wearing my old navy shirts."

Danny scoffs at him over his cider before looking down at his shirt and cursing at the obscene amount of yellow and black seasoning on his Ralph Lauren dress shirt. He always looks so formal at work that it's weird to see him lounging around on Steve's back deck in only board shorts on the weekends.

"I've actually got, uh," he pauses, and Steve swears a blush creeps over Danny's face as the blonde glances down. "I've got a bag of some stuff in my car."

He looks up briefly to meet Steve's eyes and the alpha is too surprised to look away. Danny brought an overnight bag out with him to go to a bar?

Steve looks down, unable to hide the disapproval in his eyes. "You were planning on going home with some hot chick tonight?" He can't even stop himself from saying it.

"What? No, no. Nothing like that," Danny shrugs, taking a long sip of cider. "I just figured we'd hang out tomorrow? Dive for lobsters, get the grill goin', watch the game. Bro time?"

Oh.

Danny was planning on coming home with him, then.

_Good._

Feeling a warmth flush over his face, Steve relaxes into the booth, leaning slightly so that his arm is brushing against Danny's warm skin. The alpha is smiling smugly at the realization that Danny appropriates his company so much. He waits to see if Danny pulls away from his touch. But the beta doesn't. He never does.

"Wait," Danny murmurs, "You thought I was gonna try to go home with the cocktail waitress?" He glances up with him casually, voice low.

Steve raises up his hands sheepishly and keeps staring at the basketball game on TV across the bar.

"She gonna help me if I move out of that Petri dish apartment?" He elbows Steve gently in the ribs, laughing low under his breath. "Huh? Is she gonna cover me next time some prick is shooting at me from an armored car? She gonna make me a five star chicken salad sandwich?"

Steve grins wryly. "That was a good sandwich. And I wasted it on you, the ingrate who thinks hot sauce belongs on pizza." They both turn back to their beers and Steve has the urge to flash teeth at the waitress the next time she bounds up to flirt with Danny. This time, the blonde is respectful but cooler toward her and she seems a little put out as she grabs a plate of a few bones from the wings.

His alpha side puffs its chest out, proud over this petty competition for his partner's attention, and Steve leans back to survey the bar again, casually checking his surroundings for threats. There are a few beautiful beta females giving Steve alluring, warm smiles, and Steve considers buying one of them a drink, but he thinks better of it. 

He used to do things like that on shore leave in the Navy. Lately, however, the alpha has realized that strangers’ scents linger in his den, and he doesn't like it. The last time he brought a woman home for a one night-stand, her scent was all over his bedroom, and he ended up having to wash and febreeze everything after he dropped her back off at her car the next morning. A botany professor at the local university, the beta woman had been lovely and charming; however, with pheromones that heady, she might have been an alpha trying to mask her scent with scent blockers. Danny’s scent is starting to leave impressions around the house too, with all of the time they spend together lately, but Danny’s scent is familiar and comforting. Betas can't smell people’s scents and pheromones, but Steve wonders if Danny can pick up on it subconsciously, because Danny starts to fidget in his sleep if Steve holds his wrist near Danny’s face. He discovered that odd response one night while reaching for the remote to turn off the TV that the beta always falls asleep listening to on Steve’s sofa. 

Blushing sheepishly at the thought, Steve remembers that he’s been pointedly rubbing his wrists all over the sofa after work everyday, just so Danny will smell like him in the morning. Steve rubs the towels on his wrists too, so the scent will be on the smaller beta for most of tomorrow too, even after they swim on his beach.

Why can't Steve stop grinning about that into the rim of his beer?

 

xxxxxx

 

Danny somehow catches more lobsters than Steve does, and, out of anger, Steve swims over to where he's snorkeling and places a lobster right on his back. It scuttles fully across the Beta's back before Danny realizes what it is, and by the time he turns around to glance up over his shoulder, the thing has it's vengeful little claws raised toward the prize that is Danny's left ear, its beady black eyes fixed waywardly onto his own in a clear challenge of seafaring authority.

Danny curses and all but chucks the thing off its shoulders toward the open sea, and the lobster before darting away full speed underwater, experiences the short lived phenomenon of flight and splays its tail and claws up as if to pinch the air for offending it in such a way.

Steve later has to convince Danny not to spear him in the thigh with a spear fishing spear.

 

xxxxxxx

 

They grille out that night; it's surf and turf, and Chin and Kono had somehow acquired Kobe beef to bring by.

“Kono badged the guy for not wearing a hairnet when he opened the display for the steaks,” Chin explains flatly.

Steve shoots her a look, “Technically I'm supposed to give you a talking to about why law enforcement officials are not allowed to accept bribes.”

She scoffs at him. “It was a gift.”

“Or gifts,” Danny chimes in, starting to grab plates to start washing up in Steve's sink.

When the blonde comes back out, Chin glances up at his Jersey team mate. “So black mold huh? In your apartment?”

Danny pulls a face, “Yeah. I've been affectionately referring to it as 'The Grudge.' The maintenance guy is about as clever as a sock, so I don't think it's going away any time soon.” 

“We could sealit off with some painter's plastic if you wanted to at least be able to sleep there while you find a new place,” Chin offers. “C'mon man, you don't want to have to keep sleeping on Steve's ancient, lumpy couch, do you?”

Ever so fucking helpful, this man, the alpha thinks.

Steve has paused, awkwardly mouthing at his wine glass, the one that doesn't match any of the others in the cabinets, and feels like clapping one of his huge alpha hands over Chin's mouth to get him to drop the issue.

His eyes flick over to Danny.

The beta appears to somehow notice when his scent changes because Danny gets up suddenly puts a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, we could; but look at that view, huh? I'm never gonna find that on a detective's salary,” he gestures to the beach out beyond the deck. “Not much incentive to find a new place to sleep.”

“Yeah, Chin,” Kono shoves him with her knee discreetly and he glances at her in confusion.

Steve's face is completely red at this point. “Yeah, well, I've thought about having roommates before,” he shrugs, trying to play it off. “I wouldn't mind having one again.”

But Danny hears it for what it is. An invitation. The Beta goes quiet, dragging a hand up over his stomach pensively as he takes in the words. Because yeah, Steve just effectively asked him to move in, and they both know it wouldn't only be because of the black mold. It doesn't seem like a stretch from where they've stood for the past few months to make this relatively logical step.

Best friends live together all the time, right?

But Danny isn't saying anything.

Kono breaks the sudden silence by commenting on the lobsters and Chin starts to chuckle, sharing a story about why he'll never spear fish with MacFarlan again, but Kono's looking up at Danny too. She's noticed the shift in his mood, too.

Steve's fangs start to pop in his mouth from the nerves alone as he glances up at Danny's eyes, but the small detective just forces a smile, reaching for the empty bottle of wine to go switch it for another inside. “I'll be right back, you guys.”

Feeling an uncomfortable pressure settle in his chest, Steve can't stop himself from bounding after him, but Danny is so convincing with his forced smile when he turns to look at him in the sliding doors to the kitchen that Steve has to resort to attempting to scent him to decipher whatever is happening. The blonde edges away from him, clearing his throat.

“Hey, buddy, can we go get my car after this? I've got to run some errands before work in the morning,” he says with that same forced smile, turning to Steve and the alpha knows his face visibly falls for the better part of a second.

“Yeah,” he quips automatically, nodding awkwardly, and he waits for Danny to – to do something. To explain why, after they've both so obviously been taking part in this twisted dance of emotions and pushing boundaries with each other, after both equally assuming the risk and responsibility of whatever he wants to call this, the idea of sharing a den as platonic room-mates would be so jarring to him.

Is it really so different from what's happening now – from sleeping at his house on weekends, and having a toothbrush in the medicine cabinet in the guest bathroom, and leaving laundry in his washer and dryer?

“Danny, look, I don't – I mean, you don't have to – if you – ” he begins awkwardly, but Danny exhales loudly through his nose and turns to look up at him with a look so arresting and pained that the rest of Steve's words wither on his tongue.

“This is getting to be a dangerous game,” he says suddenly, forced smile gone and eyes darting evasively around the kitchen; “For me.”

Steve is dead silent for as long as it takes to quell down an initial flare of anger, but it still comes out with venom. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Danny raises his hands like he's surrendering and won't look him in the eye. “Never mind. Nothing.”

Steve reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder, “What do you mean 'nothing'? That doesn't mean nothing. Now what the hell did you mean by that -- 'a dangerous game?'”

Danny shakes his head, huffing air out of his nose and gently but firmly pushes the alpha's hand away from him. He knows better than to start physically challenging an alpha during an argument. “I think you know what I mean.”

A thousand different words flood into Steve's mind, crashing so quickly into his thoughts with white foam and spray like an ocean wave that he can't even begin to single out a selected few to sling back at him. And with that, Danny walks, carrying the fucking bottle of wine out to the deck. With the exception of thanking him for the ride in Steve’s truck out to the bar for his Camaro, Danny won't look him in the eye for the rest of the night.

The day had been so perfect, and Steve curls in on himself on the couch in front of a muted TV that night. He may or may not be doing it for the excuse of inhaling the lingering scent on the pillows, and it's the first nights he dreams about Danny.

Since he joined the Seals, it was like he had convinced himself not to dream, and it's been a long time since Steve can actually remember having one. But that night he dreams about Danny, about their argument, but in the dream, Steve is braver than he had been in that moment, and yells back that it may be dangerous but it's not a game.

At least not to him.

 

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Danny is so friendly and jocular at work the next week that it's like nothing happened. But there's an excuse every time Steve even begins to ask if Danny wants to do anything after work, and Danny avoids field work with the excuse of his old knee injury flaring up.

Steve retreats into his office most of the time, and only comes out to brief the team about cases and objectives.

He tries not to look too much at Danny's blue eyes, and tries even harder to pretend that that's not a difficult task.

The small detective doesn't exactly look well, though, and people are starting to notice. Max comes at him with a thermometer – convinced that he has a severe fever – but Danny swats him away, snapping that ‘that thing has probably been in a corpse’  to which Max replies that 'a coroner would have no need to measure the temperature of a human post mortem.'

Steve feels a sort of nagging headache at the back off his mind, and he swears his alpha half is more on edge now.

A transfer request arrives on his desk the next morning. It's Danny's, and in neat but quick handwriting it says Seattle, Washington, and has a signature line for Steven J. McGarrett – the director that has to approve this transfer, and he wonders if he would even know about it otherwise.

He wants to scream.

Before he knows what he's doing, Steve rips the paper in half.

Rips this fucking sense of dread in half, rips the unconscionable idea of losing Danny right in fucking half.

Steve stares at the shreds of Danny's transfer request forms and flicks his eyes toward the window to make sure no one has been watching.

His alpha is smug and proud, prowling over his thoughts, but his rational mind is appalled and confused.

Oh God. What has he done?

Hide the evidence.

He puts the pieces in the trash, shoving them all the way to the bottom and wrenches the clear, cheap bag out of the canister to storm toward the trash chute. The alpha has to calmly cross the entire floor of the headquarters building, resisting the urge to shamefully sprint to the chute near the utility closet on the back corner of the floor.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

He smiles politely at a few of the forensics techs as he passes the brightly lit lab, quickening his pace to the black metal void that he's going to disappear this entire mess into, just like the dark corner of his mind he's going to compartmentalize this whole transfer-request-induced-rage into.

But it doesn't work.

"Commander McGarrett?" A small voice asks.

He turns.

"Lucy," he says blankly. She's an intern lab tech, all bright eyed and innocent looking, and when he locks eyes with her she blushes and looks away. Typical young beta behavior.

"Are you okay?" She blurts, "You've been standing here... And I-- well--"

She's holding a bag of used chemwipes and latex gloves, glancing toward the trash chute that Steve's hulking form has been blocking for at least five minutes.

"Right, excuse me," he mutters, awkwardly, and all but lunges for the stairs.

 

xxxxxxxx

 

Everything changes when Danny's gun locks up during a shootout in a bank two days later. Because he doesn't call for backup, as per protocol. He calls for Steve, instead.

Desperately.

HPD all turn to stare at him when they hear the panicked Jersey accented voice and a staccato of gunfire over the com units, and the alpha is pretty sure someone reaches out to try and grab his tac vest before does something stupid.

But Steve bolts.

He runs headlong into open fire by the doors of the bank to dive behind the mahogany counter where Danny is stranded with the locked gun. When he gets to him, the beta looks up in shock to see that Steve's fangs have popped and he startles backward.

No. Steve starts forward, grabbing him, maybe he's being too rough because he's slightly feral, but God fucking help him Danny's not going to get hurt under his watch. He yanks him closer until he's only inches from his face, and snarls, asking him if they _hurt_ him.

"Steve--" Danny starts in confusion, pawing at his huge hands to make the alpha let go, but Steve just shakes him, leans in until their foreheads are almost touching, because there's gunfire exploding into the thick glass above them and screaming and too much chatter on the radio to think straight.

"Answer me, dammit!" Steve snarls, baring his fangs, and Danny lets out an inhuman sounding yelp, one that he's never heard a beta make before.

The sound drives Steve up the wall and he surges forward, yanking Danny down on the floor. He has to protect him, he thinks in a instinctive haze of panic. He has to dominate him and show him that he's in charge; Steve straddles the front of Danny's hips, shoving Danny down to the floor and squeezing his powerful thighs on either side of the beta's smaller hips.

He feels himself grow hard in his cargos at the warmth of Danny's groin pressed against his and the urge to thrust -- to grind against his stiffening length against his partner's package -- is overwhelming.

"McGarrett," the radio calls out. "McGarrett, what the hell did you just do -- are you even alive?" The HPD officer is shrieking into his receiver after witnessing Steve clear the bank counter like a thoroughbred.

Danny has gone completely still, panting under him, but his tan, nimble fingers have come up to wrap around Steve's belt loops, pulling Steve's hips tight down against his own as the detective turns his head slowly to submit to the alpha, baring his neck.

His cock twitches instantly against Danny at the thought of pinning Danny's arms down and just taking from him, grinding on him, sinking teeth into the creamy skin of the Beta's neck, and gripping and pulling him through the fabric of his slacks until he's coming like a teenager in his pants under Steve's control. The mental images slam Steve back into real time like he's just fallen into ice water, and he's flailing and scrambling backwards until his back is against a wall.

For twenty seven minutes, they stare at everything but each other and Steve listens to his heart rate slowly lower.

Afterward, he's darting into his truck when four different people ask him 'what the hell happened in there.' Steve silently shakes his head and snaps under his breath.

“Nothing.”

But what's actually happened, and Steve knows it, and Steve knows that Danny knows that Steve knows it, is that everything has changed.

 

 

II

 

It's only eleven in the morning but Steve races home in his truck from the destruction at the bank, clenching his jaw at the thought that there's no way Steve can deny what's been happening now. There's no euphemism to employ, no half assed excuse to dismiss the agency for his own actions.

He guns the gas, growling to himself as he runs a stale yellow light, but it comes out manifesting his confusion and fuck he sounds like a little bitch right now.

Lieutenant Commander Steven J. McGarrett-- war hero. Man's man. Ladies' man. Mr. GQ.

Stop sign.

He rolls through it.

Thinking back on the fiasco that was what just happened behind the mahogany tellers' desk, Steve tries to compartmentalize the fuck out of the memories. He needs to tuck them away.

But Danny had been pulling him closer, tighter down on his own until their lengths had been stiff and hot and pulsing against each other. Steve had been sexually advancing onto him and the detective had been pulling him closer, had submitted to him. Had wanted more.

He feels a bulge in the crotch of his jeans as his body starts to show interest in his train of thought and Steve feels his eyes sting.

He turns into his driveway and takes a shuddering breath.

Because that's it, isn't it.

He's attracted to Danny.

He's attracted to Danny, and he has feelings for him. For a man.

"Oh fuck." The shame he feels rushing into his chest like a suffocating smoke is enough to cause the hardness in his boxers to soften instantly. And yet, some part of him smirks in the back of his mind, as if it knows that it can openly pursue his interest now without the impedance of confusion and ingrained aversion.

He stumbles through his door.

Shuts the blinds.

He kicks off his cargo boots, undoes his belt, and removes his gun -- unloading it, because really, that's necessary right now and Steve doesn't want to think about why.

As he makes a trail straight for the liquor cabinet, his discarded items litter the floor. He trips over them a few times that afternoon, when he's doing his best to drown any feelings over the revelation.

The only person he can think to call is to call Mary-- who, with her weird, never-predictable perception of life, might be the one person he can trust not to fucking judge him on this-- but she doesn't pick up. She probably hasn't paid her phone bill. Again.

He doesn't realize he's sitting in the dark that night until his phone screen starts to glow. The brightness makes his eyes hurt, and his head reels back on its own drunken accord as his body and brain begin to dissociate from intoxication.

He manages to check the screen and screws his eyes shut in disbelief at who's trying to talk to him right now.

Danny's texting him. The flip of excitement in his chest is enough to make him make a guttural sound of grief over the death of the delusion that he ever didn't have feelings for this man. This fucking beta.

He tries to text something back but even his iPhone's auto correct can't decipher his nearly nauseated, drunken attempts to spell out a reply. The room is spinning.

He's still working up an explanation of why he left the scene so quickly when there's a knock at his door.

He doesn't move, just stubbornly stares at the blinking cursor on his phone because he knows exactly who's at his door.

Through the haze of alcohol and stench of shame emanating off of him, the alpha suddenly deciphers a scent that soothes his feverishly angry thoughts into silence.

"Danny," he croaks, turning his eyes into the crook of his elbow.

The small detective walks in cautiously, takes a few sniffs of his pheromone signatures and sighs. Steve says nothing, turns to glare at him because, even if he can somehow read his scent signatures, at least the fucking beta can't read his mind.

"What."

"Team's worried, big guy -- said you practically ran off the scene without doing any booking work," the Jersey detective explains slowly.

"W'you worried, Danno?" He blurts, because he can't fucking help himself and he's already said it so he might as well listen to the response.

Danny has turned on a lamp and looks almost alarmed at whatever his eyes convey of the shitstorm in his skull. Steve's alpha picks up on the tinge of fear and he growls, glaring at him.

"Steve?" He swallows, that throat, that golden skin, and Steve can hear his heart rate quicken. The blonde steps closer -- a normal beta would never do that.

Ever.

The alpha huffs at this creature coming closer, but is consoled by the fact that the blonde's head is tipped in submission again.

“I said were you worried?”

"During the shootout? Of course I was worried, I was fuckin' getting shot at," he hears Danny mumble. And Steve doesn't realize that his eyes have drifted shut until there's a smooth hand on his back. “But then you were there.”

The alpha's eyes flick open, cataloging the touch and marveling at the fact that this is somehow okay. He goes to say something, but it comes out like a broken whine, forcing him to turn his face away in embarrassment.

"You wanna talk about what happened?" Danny asks softly and his hand is delicately trailing through his hair and it feels too good.

He doesn't answer, but Steve leans into the touch, hopeful that his forwardness doesn't scare him off but, then again -- what the fuck kind of cop would rub his partner's head and back like this given what just took place on the glass covered floor of the bank.

He fees a emboldened thrill quiver through him when he slowly reaches up toward the beta's hand. Resolutely staring at a frayed thread on the chair, Steve but he feels Danny's hand still on his scalp, and the alpha's heart beats heavy in his chest as he finally reaches Danny's hand with his own.

Pausing, with dread of what may happen, he strokes his thumb over the back of Danny's hand slowly -- giving him a chance to pull his hand away and shove him off if he's reading this wrong, but the Alpha in him is intoxicated by this golden tawny creature.

Danny freezes next to him, and God, it could be from anything.

Shock? Excitement? Disgust?

Swallowing thickly, Steve feels the haunting weight of regret and humiliation settling on his heart and--

A pair of soft lips slowly and silently kiss Steve's knuckles.

After the shock of it paralyzes him for a long minute he turns to lock his reddened eyes on two fierce blue ones.

Did they both know what was happening, all of those months they were shoulder to shoulder, gravitating toward each other at every opportunity under the guise of absent minded familiarity?

They say nothing, not letting go but not moving closer, and Steve is pretty sure the silence would be deafening if he could hear it over the rushing of his own blood.

This thing between them. He's not imagining it; it's there and Danny has succumb to it too.

Before Steve can grasp this one fleeting moment of clarity to string words together, his hand slowly reaches up the detective's arm, feeling his skin like he has so many times before but not like this because he needs this. As he adjusts himself in the chair, he widens his knees almost imperceptibly in an invitation to pull Danny in against him and Christ his dick is hardening at the anticipation.

He sees the blonde's skin flush as he pulls him until he's standing at the V of Steve's long legs.

His alpha half is the only part of him that isn't shy about enticing this gorgeous thing with the promise of sex and he thrusts the bulge in the center of his widely spread legs up ever so slightly at the beta as if to remind him of their adrenaline fueled altercation earlier that day. The beta's eyelids are suddenly heavy and his face is heated.

Danny makes a low rumbling noise as he begins to lean both hands on the top of Steve's chair and the crotch of his jeans isn't as noticeable so much as the wave of heady arousal Steve feels on the air around him.

It's like nothing the alpha has ever experienced and he feels a primal rush of need at the mouth watering scent that curls off of Danny's skin. And he might be growling -- which betas can't do-- or trying to but all Steve can think is about how badly he needs to taste Danny -- how he needs to steal him away and wrap his around a around him to hold to his chest and keep him a sexy sweet secret to come home to -- to guard, to have forever.

He leans forward, blissfully entranced by the scent of home and love and "his" and rubs the corner of his jaw against Danny's face, fucking marks him because he's his and-

"The hell?" Danny reels back, hand rubbing at his face like he's trying to wipe something disgusting off of his skin and he's staring at the alpha in horror. "Did you just -- scent me?"

A beat passes.

Steve fumbles to cover his mistake, but it was obvious what he'd done, and yeah, Danny's right. Scenting is what husbands do to their wives, what mothers do to babies. It's an extremely intimate gesture, and well, possibly a shock to a full grown independent beta.

In fact, probably a shock.

"Danny I didn't mean to -- " he sputters, face reddening, "I just, I thought..."

"You just thought what, Steven? That you own me?" He scoffs and that disgusted look pierces straight into his alpha ego. “That's what scares me about you, you want me on a leash and you always have ever since we met. You don't do this to the other betas, and you didn't do this to Cath!”

"No, it's -- just -- " You're mine. I want to mate you and make you mine.

Steve absolutely chokes on the words.

He'll never be able to say it. Some fucking alpha he is.

Danny must see a flicker of some of this in his eyes because he takes a good long look into them.

His gaze suddenly softens like he feels sorry for Steve, and then he suddenly starts toward the door. "I need to go. And you need to sign that transfer request."

Steve is up out of his chair like a fucking lion, grabs him on the shoulder like it's a life line.

"Danny please," he seethes through his clenched teeth and he knows he's wigging the beta out because his whole body stiffens.

"Steve, look, I like you. That has to be clear from whatever the fuck it was that you felt the need to do to me earlier during the shootout, but I'm not something you own. I can't be that, your lap dog, and every time I want to get closer you, you make me realize that I can't do this with you," he snaps.

"Can't -- with a guy? An alpha?" He pauses, hand clenching tighter into Danny's stiff shoulder. "Or just with me?"

"Steve..." he sighs, rolling his shoulder to try to shrug his hand off but the alpha doesn't let go.

Steve swears some part of Danny is afraid of him. The blonde's heart rate has picked up, his breathing is heavier, and there's sweat glistening on the blonde's neck and temple. Steve stops abruptly when he catches himself leaning in to try to inhale around his neck.

"Why are you so spooked Danny?" He breathes, eyes concerned. “You gonna tell me why you wigged the fuck out at the thought of sharing a den?”

Entwined with Danny's fear is the scent of arousal -- but it's faint like he's been using his usual scent blocking body spray.

"It's complicated."

"This isn't complicated Danny. I like you, you like me," he whispers, rubbing his biceps with his thumbs as he holds him.

Slowly, he turns Danny until he's facing him. If Danny has been waiting for this as long as he has, it won't be hard to change his mind. And yes, this is dangerous territory but he hasn't punched Steve in the nose yet, so the alpha continues. The smell of arousal is getting stronger.

The blue eyes are looking up at him wearily as Steve slowly cages him against the wall, shivering with his alpha brain's pleasure at the dominant stance.

Danny looks so small in his arms. But sturdy.

"Look, I don't know what this is," Steve breathes, raising a hand to delicately run a fingertip down the side of Danny's temple.

"Well," Danny swallows, clearing his throat as he lifts his hand to pointedly brush away Steve's fingertips. "That's my face, Steven. That's what that is. And you're touching it. My face."

Steve nearly rolls his eyes. "Babbling. Your coping mechanism," he mutters. "That's what that is." Then he pauses, voice going husky and deep. "Danny, there's something... about you that makes me feel like I need you with me. Whenever I'm at work sure, but also at home. When I'm driving. Jogging. Swimming. Working on the car in the garage. Sleeping," he murmurs softly, ducking his eyes, "I tried to ignore it, but I can't. And I'm sorry it makes me seem like a tyrant, but I just see you, and I have to... I have to make sure you're okay. All the time...”

Danny meets his gaze when he looks up again to search for a reaction in the beta, but his eyes full of that same fucking sadness and pity, like he knows exactly what it is, but also like he doesn't want to explain.

"Look, Steve. Whatever's messing with your wires right now? This isn't you," Danny mutters, meaning to brush his arms away, but Steve's alpha brain takes it as a challenge and leans in close, intimidating.

"It is me, Danno," Steve breathes, turning his head slowly like he's studying the detective with new eyes. "Who fucking pulled you out of a demolished building -- stood beside you when that maniac had a bomb on you... Got you out of Columbia?" He leans in closer. "I lied to the Feds for you. Lied under oath? You can't tell me you thought that was just me doing my job. You could've pushed me away a year ago, twenty minutes ago, but here you are. I can smell it on you -- I can almost fucking taste it -- how bad you want this!"

A wave of grief slowly rises up from Danny's skin as he meets his eyes, "Steve don't." His eyes are shining. "I care about you a lot, I hope you do know that... but you don't understand what's going on -- what's at stake and I," he doubles over like he's in pain, grabbing his forehead. "Christ I can't do this."

"Wait, no--"

"Get off." He shoves the former Seal off and wrenches open the door.

The alpha growls in distress and tries to grab him again, at anything he can reach, which happens to be the back of his neck, just to stop him and make him understand!

So he's completely unprepared when the blonde whines out at the touch to his neck like he's wounded.

The alpha startles in surprise as the sound grates against his brain; Steve swears he's developed some acute onset of an entire body migraine or something, because, fuck, it hurts enough to make him let go instantly.

To add to the what-in-the-actual-fuck of this encounter, his partner-- that he has known for almost a year and a half -- whips around to hiss at him, fangs out like an alpha but Christ in heaven this not like any alpha Steve has ever seen.

"What the..." Steve breathes, neck bristling in leery confusion as he watches the small detective storm toward the Camaro and slam the car door shut. He sniffs, confirming the fact that there isn't even a hint of Alpha aggression. Instead, the air smells sweet -- sickeningly sweet and it is definitely unsettling his very core existence.

What the hell kind of beta is this? Steve thinks, lips still parted in surprise as the Camaro burns rubber and peels away at top speed.

He opens his phone, shocked slightly sober, and texts Joe White.

>  
> 
> 20:11:18 To Joe W; From STEVE M: can betas hiss? Like a cat?
> 
>   
>  20:15:09 To Steve M; From JOE W: hahah no beta I've ever seen. Might have been fucking w/ u
> 
>   
>  20:17:48 To Joe W from STEVE M: don't think so
> 
>   
>  20:20:13 To Steve M; From JOE W: last time I got hissed at was by the Sheik's harem guards. Sounds like something between a hiss from a big cat and viper. 13 male omegas. Terrifying when they get pissed off.  Every alpha in my unit was on their knees from the distress pheromones alone never mind the claws. Their heat cycle pheromones are one of the only things that can disarm a feral Alpha without fire power  ;^) 
> 
>   
>  20:22:24 To Joe W; From STEVE M: Those are extinct though right?
> 
>   
>  20:23:11 To Steve M; From JOE W: Technically they’re endangered. Almost extinct though. The U.S. registers them now to keep track of them
> 
>   
>  20:25:08 To Joe W; From STEVE M: the state can still do that? 
> 
>   
>  20:27:38 To Steve M; From JOE W: oh yeah. Big time big brother stuff. Most state governments are trying to try and figure out why they’re dying out, but Hawaii  has that big research center the omegas have to be tested at.  There really hasn’t been an omega born in HI for decades

 

 

Steve frowns and glances toward the driveway, at the tire tracks from the Camaro he's going to have to pressure wash off the white cement.

When he shuts the door finally, shaking his head at how much his brain has had to try and process today, he pauses. His fingertips run along a flaw in the smooth door, one that he's never noticed before.

He already knows what it is when he flicks on the porch light, leaning out into the humid evening air and frowning at the door.

Four deep scratches are marring the edge of the door -- like something (or someone)-- has clawed at it. They marks are finger widths apart but are a lot lower than where Steve's hand hits the door.

But the height of the claw marks is perfectly suited for Danny's smaller stature. Huh.

Steve bites his lip as he stares up at the almost full moon. His life was supposed to calm down after the navy and this feels like the start of something very not calm.

xxxxxxxxx

It's after two hours of silence on a car ride the next week that Danny finally speaks to him.

"Did you sign my transfer request?"

Steve blinks. Fuck.

"Yeah."

Right before I tore it into tiny little pieces.

"Governor's assistant says she didn't get it."

And then I put those pieces down the trash chute where they will rightfully be incinerated by industrial hellfire.

Steve shrugs uneasily, keeping his eyes on the road. He can feel his partner's blue eyes on him and the look makes the alpha want to crawl onto the floorboards with his tail between his legs.

He clears his throat. "So? Department mail leaves early on Fridays."

"I gave it to you on a Tuesday. A Tuesday, Steven." He articulates every word as sharp as a knife. "Last Tuesday, in fact. Today is Monday."

Steve does his best to shoot him a bewildered expression, "What do you want me to say, babe? she'll get it eventually."

"I don't want to transfer eventually, Steve, I need to transfer by the end of the fucking month!"

It's a red light and he turns to meet those furious blue eyes, neck bristling.

"Do you even fucking hear yourself? Danny, this is your home -- your Ohana -- and you haven't even mentioned to Kono or Chin that you're so anxious to leave for fucking Seattle!"

His eyes look pained at that. "Steven I told you -- I don't want to go but I have to, it's just the way things are!" He slams his fist onto the glove compartment and Steve sees the faintest glint of light coming off of his fingertips.

Off of claws.

"Yeah, well, people do what they want to do, Danny, so that must be the way things really are," Steve says, before sniffing the air because there's that sweet smell again, but it's not as strong. "And what the hell is wrong with your nails? You clawed up my door, too -- you wanna explain that?"

Danny tucks his hands under his arms and doesn't answer, doesn't say anything for the rest of the ride, but two HPD rookies have to wrestle him away from a violent perp later when he starts absolutely kicking the shit out of him.

When the medics ask why the guy has deep scratches on his face and arms, Steve says he doesn't know, but he pointedly flicks his eyes over to the blonde.

Danny won't meet his eyes.

xxxx

The end of the week comes and goes. A new transfer request appears on his desk and Steve rips it up after reading the word urgent stamped on top of it. But his shredder and trash can are missing, NOT coincidentally.

Steve huffs in disbelief and instead leans over toward his window, to reach for a terra cotta potted plant that Mary snuck into his office a few months ago; he just sort of started trying to take care of it, but it's been looking pretty sorry for a few weeks. He thinks it has something to do with a multi legged something he found munching little crop circles into the leaves.

He grabs up the mangey looking plant up by its stem, taking up most of the dirt with it, and shoves the pieces of paper into the bottom of it.

He hears and smells his beta Jerry walking toward his office, according to an email, it's to show him new "evidence" (which means he's probably about to convince him that the local ice cream parlor is run by a vampire or Bigfoot).

But the paranormal specialist and/or conspiracy theorist barges in right as he's shoving the plant back in its pot with a satisfied smirk, and the large man just stares in confusion at the half dead plant, and the dirt all over Steve's hands before meeting his gaze hesitantly.

"I'm clearly in the middle of some gardening here, Jerry, what?" The alpha watches as the lowly beta slowly backs out of the office and shuts the door.

A book on horticulture appears on his desk the next morning with something called an 'aqua globe.'

xxxx

Danny shoves open the door to his office with a new transfer request right as the alpha is changing shirts before a meeting with some Navy top brass.

"Steven, I swear to God," he snarls, clenching the paper in a death grip. Steve flicks his predatory eyes up to the intruder and relaxes slightly when he realizes it's Danny.

"Hello, Daniel. Oh, I'm fine thank you. And you?"

"I think you know how I am, and if you don't sign this and turn it in this time, I'm gonna fuckin' forge it." As soon as the blonde steps through the door way, however, the detective reels back like he's been splashed in the face with water and claps a hand over his nose. "Motherf--"

"Danny?" Steve pauses, hands on the middle button of his shirt. A jolt of concern beats through his chest at the thought of Danny being ill or injured and the alpha in him is bristling to attention.

Danny is staring at him in horror, like there's something on him or about him that's causing this and Alpha looks down, absolutely puzzled because he's pretty sure Danny's seen his chest hair with no great consequence.

A beat passes, and just when Steve thinks what ever it is has passed The beta's eyelids flutter shut and he sways on his feet.

"Woah, woah, hey!" Steve lunges forward and reaches out to study him, but the blonde whips up a finger threateningly in his face.

"Don't! J-just stay there. Stay. I mean it."

The alpha growls, but it comes out as a whine. "Danny, what the hell is going on with you lately?" He pleads, hands up in frustration as he stands there awkwardly with a half buttoned shirt.

"Nothing," the blonde mutters, rubbing his brow like he's trying to shake it off.

Steve reaches toward the phone. "Yeah, right. I think medical needs to get up here."

"No, no." The blonde swallows thickly. "Steve, I'm uh -- fine, really," he says quickly, looking at the floor, the ceiling, anywhere but at the alpha and that weird too-sweet scent is curling off his skin again. "Just something I need to take care of."

Before Steve can utter a word of protest, the beta slams the papers down on the closest surface to the door (a leather chair) and practically sprints through Five 0's offices toward the elevators. 

Steve glances down at the papers and his stomach turns uneasily. If he wasn't supposed to be on the base in ten minutes he'd follow Danny's scent and settle this bullshit right now. With either a kiss or a fist.

He moved the papers to his desk, drops a paperweight onto them, and walks out, knowing that it'll have to wait until morning

Xxx

Danny doesn't show up at work the next morning.

Most of Steve's day is spent doing paperwork, plowing through a stack of interrogations, and fiddling with the Aqua globe. He can't figure out how he's supposed to fill the thing without getting water everywhere.

One of the suspects accuses him of looking at his phone more than a lovesick thirteen year old girl and the guy gets a black eye for that one, paperwork be damned.

xxx

The second day Danny doesn't show -- supposedly he has the flu -- Steve feels this sinking sensation in his chest.

Kono rides around with him for the day and after they're zip tying two escaped convicts to each other, she asks him if everything's okay with he and Danny.

"Danny's sick," Steve says quietly, unstrapping his tack gloves as HPD pulls up to take the guy in. "Got the flu or something."

"I know, I heard, boss. But--" she pauses, giving him a sort of sad expression. "I mean you and Danny. Like, you know..."

He stares at her, right into those deep brown eyes and he knows right then and there that she knows and probably has known for a very long time. Steve feels his eyes stinging as he looks down at his gloves.

"I dunno," he mumbles, playing it off like it's not on his mind every 2.35 seconds.

Kono purses her lips nodding slowly. "He's probably just going through one of those moods he gets into every couple of months."

Steve hasn't told anyone about the transfer request, partly because he was sure Danny would change his mind if Steve could just reason with him... But now he won't take his calls.

"He's done this before?" Steve asks casually, ears piquing at the hopeful thought.

"Oh, Yeah," Kono scoffs, sliding up into the truck beside him. "When you went out to work on the USS Mercy with Cath? He was like the hot mess express, boss."

Steve furrows his brows. "And a hot mess express is what exactly? We didn't use that term in the seals." He tries not to sound like he's fucking hanging off her every word but he feels like it.

Kono giggles softly, flashing those brilliant white teeth and really this little graceful beta is too pretty to have tackled a convict in the dirt a half hour ago. "Sorry, boss, I forget you're not exactly a pup," she smoothes back her hair. "Umm... How do I phrase this. Okay. Okay -- you saw 'The Notebook,' right?"

"Unfortunately."

She giggles again, "Okay the scene when Noah finds out that Allie's engaged to someone else and he comes back to the house and he's like --" she throws her hands out in front of her and makes a scream-whisper-crying-and-or-roaring noise and Steve holds up a hand.

"Alright, alright I got it. Got it. Hot mess Express," he can't help but crack a smile at his beta's attempts to bridge the generational gap and he shakes his head.

When he drops her off back at HQ, he evasively gives an excuse about catching an early lunch and asks if she wants anything from downtown. But she just raises her brows at him playfully.

"Uh no boss, I'm good. Say hey for me," she winks and he gives her a deadpan expression, leaning over the steering wheel like a big, confident cat.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Officer Kalakaua."

She shakes her head, walking back up to the office and flashes him thumbs up without turning around, but he knows she's probably grinning wide enough to eat a banana sideways.

xxx

He's still grinning when he pulls up at Danny's apartment complex, even as he bounds up the stairs. He's just going to tell him how he feels. Danny feels at least somewhat strongly for him; hell, he's been apparently been smelling arousal on him for months -- he just didn't recognize it for what it was.

Despite the fact that Steve has no idea how this is gonna play out, which has never stopped him from successfully completing a mission before, he's at least got confidence about the whole thing.

His shoulders fall however when there's no answer to his knock at the door. He looks around (and he's told Danny twice that he's not okay with the guy living in this dump so that's the first thing on his list after this mess clears up) until he remembers where Danny had shown him the spare key.

For emergencies.

This is definitely an emergency, Steve thinks. Because he has become so accustomed to Danny under his arm in the last two years and for fuck's sake the guy can't just... Leave. Not like this anyway, without explaining.

Jesus, he feels as nervous as he did before he asked Mary-Louise Davies to the junior prom.

He eases the door open and the pheromones hit him like a flash grenade, disorienting him so strongly that his knees buckle and he slides down along the wall to the linoleum floor whining an embarrassingly high pitched noise in the back of his throat.

He reaches for his phone, puts his hand on his gun and undoes the holster's top strap because surely this is some kind of chemical warfare. When he hears a faint groaning noise, he staggers to his feet. The shower is running but there's no steam coming from the bathroom.

"Danny?" He pants, breathing into his shirt. But fuck it smells so good, so enticing. He's never smelled anything like this before, and it makes his mouth water as he walks toward the source of the scent.

The alpha in him is pacing in the back of his mind, desperately trying to break to the surface and his fangs even start to pop, pricking the inside of his lip painfully.

He rounds the corner to the bathroom and his eyes widen through the haze of the scent.

Danny is slumped in a heap at the bottom of the shower, wearing an undershirt and boxers, as a spray of water beats down on him. His eyes are shut and Steve reaches out to touch his hand because so help him god if he's not breathing --

Danny lets loose a low, pained groan and Steve feels his own soul jump back into his body finally because good Jesus God in Heaven he doesn't know what he would've done. The water is freezing when he reaches down to shake his shoulder. "Danny, Danny it's me."

He bites his lip when he gets no response and paws blindly at the faucet handle until the frigid water is turned off.

"Cmon babe, wake up," he breathes, leaning into the tub to take his pulse and frowns when he realizes that his skin is burning under Steve's touch. His pulse is racing, despite the fact that he's barely registering Steve's presence.

Until, that is, Steve reaches into the tub to gather him against his body until he can drag him out and together they slump to the tiled floor.

"Here we go, okay, Danno. Let's get you dried off," he breathes quickly, grabbing at towels and ripping them down so forcefully that at least one of the towel rings breaks and clatters to the floor.

Danny starts to jump at the noise, and does a double take, as if just realizing that someone's there and his eyes widen in a huge unseeing panic.

The beta hisses at him, struggling to get away from him, and God it does something to the Alpha in him -- chase instinct or something-- because he finds himself lunging forward to grab him in a death grip, growling.

"Danny, Danny, I'm sorry," he sputters quickly when his partner whines out in frustration. It's when Danny is slightly dried off, panting in a heap of towels below him, that Steve starts to notice the smell. He smells delicious. No really, wow. That is... That is one of the most amazing things he's ever experienced -- it's like a drug searing though his veins every time he leans in to inhale against his neck.

After a minute, Danny shifts uncomfortably under him and Steve realizes his gun is digging into his bare leg. He sighs, reaching back with one arm to undue the holster and because he just now noticed that he's also getting dirt and mud all over Danny from coming straight here after taking down those guys with Kono.

He probably smells like the suspect too, he realizes, and as an experiment he tugs his shirt over his head, leaving his bare skin against Danny's back. He tosses the shirt into the damp tub and miraculously that does actually seem to help; Danny calms down a bit and, after a moment or two, Steve hears him inhaling near one of his wrists.

"See? You know me," he mumbles, slowly shifting off of him.

But the detective turns to stare up at him, with those dark blown pupils, and rolls onto his back, sliding closer to reach out for his hand.

"Danny, are you on drugs? The fuck's gotten into you?" He asks, but nonetheless reaches out to hold his hand firmly.

The claws are out, he notices, but Danny's being purposefully gentle to avoid nicking his skin with them.

Taking a moment to examine the claws, Steve just looks down at Danny in confusion. The blonde smiles.

With fangs.

Steve feels his shoulders stiffen in confusion, even as Danny is inexplicably pulling himself into Steve's lap.

That smell is getting stronger, he realizes, and it's coming from Danny's neck.

Probably why he keeps shoving his neck in my face, Steve frowns, because he feels some of his senses start to flare up in response to it.

He grips Danny tight to his bare chest, unable to resist tuning his hands up and down his warm skin as the blonde presses his feverishly warm forehead against his.

He's panting again.

Blood starts pumping warm below his belt and he swallows nervously, aware of how close their lips are because he can feel the blonde's warm breath against his gently parted mouth. He shuts his eyes, feeling Danny's claws start to dig into his shoulders but he likes it, needs it to stay here in the moment and not let his mind wander somewhere dark and afraid.

Muscles flex under his touch and Danny bows gracefully away from him when he tugs off the damp muscle shirt and makes a low rumbling noise from his chest when Steve grips his hips forcefully and hikes the small detective up to straddle his hips, rocking slow against him. 

He furrows his brow; he needs to find out what's happening. Right? This is abnormal. Even for them. But if Steve did that, he'd have to take his hands off of Danny, and that's not going to happen unless this is some sort of fever dream from the chemicals. 

And if it is -- where can he buy some?

Danny nuzzles him and he blinks.

"If I didn't know better I'd say you were purring," he whispers into the blonde's ear, flicking out his tongue to suck Danny's earlobe into his wet and tender mouth before releasing it with a gentle kiss to his temple. "I've heard you do this before, but I didn't understand."

The detective's eyes are half shut now, locked on him in a daze as Steve starts to thrust and grind the swelling in his cargo pants against Danny's groin, and the small detective starts to return the motion, setting up a rhythm. Steve leans his head back with a pleased growl, and Danny goes straight for his alpha glands on the sides of his neck under his jaw with harsh kisses.

His sharp fangs nibble delicately along the flesh, and it feels different. He reaches up a hand, and woah: the glands are swollen. What is this?

But then Danny's sucking on the skin there and reaching down to unbutton his cargoes and fuuuuuck he's finally out of those tight cargoes. He feels Danny tearing -- literally tearing-- his boxers open at the front with those strange little claws and then his warm hands are on him, pumping him firmly, thumbing delicately at the area right under the head. Steve sees stars between the heavenly scent of this gorgeous blonde creature, the desperate mouth on his neck, and the skilled hands on his cock.

"Danny," he pants, trying to push him back to lock eyes with him, because he's starting to claw off his own boxers and Steve's never really done this before. He's never fucked a guy -- is that what they're about to do? Don't they need some kind of lube?

Second thoughts burst into his mind like flares, distracting him, and Danny seems pretty distressed over Steve's hesitation, whining at him and kissing his face to keep him focused.

But when he starts to slide one of Steve's hands between his legs, behind his swollen dick, leaning forward and spreading his knees wider to lead him toward his hole.

Steve is shocked to feel something hot and wet and slick that he sure as fuck as never felt on himself when he was horny as hell and adventurous in the shower that one times.

Steve wrenches his hand up to make sure it isn't blood and that Danny isn't hurt -- or hasn't hurt himself.

It's clear, whatever it is. Slippery too, and not completely unfamiliar (at least on a woman it wouldn't be).

But it smells like that same too-sweet scent he's been pick up from Danny for weeks and his Alpha brain is flooding his thoughts with arousal and ecstasy at the scent. He even has this fucked up urge to taste it, which, no... Just no. Let's uh, save that for a rainy day, he blinks in confusion.

Meanwhile, in his lap, his partner is obviously suffering.

"Danny," he breathes. "Danny, baby, listen to me -- what's happening? Were you drugged?" He asks, holding him still and then pinning his arms to his sides.

"N-no!" The blonde cries out against his neck like he's in pain, rocking against him and Steve can feel something hot and wet soaking into one of the thighs of his cargoes as Danny hikes his hips up against it, humping it almost, for friction against his hole.

"Danny answer me -- I know you're not a beta. What are you?" He growls. "Because I think I know, but you're supposed to be extinct, damn it!"

Danny actually chokes out a sob and bares his teeth in desperation. "Please, Alpha, need you, I trust you," he snarls through his fangs, clutching onto his back with those claws. "I need...you...to..." He sobs out, shivering against him even though his skin is scalding hot against Steve's.

"You need an alpha?" He breathes nervously, hands tightening around the blondes ribs to try and make him lock eyes with him. Fear and confusion are the only things between Steve and this wet dream he's been fantasizing about forever. "You just need sex? Is that it, that'll make this stop?"

Danny grunts out a snarl, shaking his head and actually leans forward to try and sink his teeth into Steve's neck but Steve is stronger and holds him back until tears are running down the blondes face like the alpha has betrayed him.

"What do you need then, Danny, tell me!" He roars.

He leans in, but Steve won't let him near his neck again with those fangs so he shoves him off firmly. The reddened, shining eyes lock onto his, with a stricken expression that tears his entire chest in half from the inside. "Pups," danny whispers quietly, folding his shaking clawed hands over his flat stomach.

"Oh F-fuck, I knew it," Steve grunts as the thought of filling Danny with his alpha knot--breeding him--strikes up a primal instinctual need so great that it almost renders him feral. The omega must smell it on him because he makes a pitifully impatient noise, digging his claws further into Steve's shoulders.

Steve winces and glances down at Danny's flat stomach incredulously and swallows, fighting to stay lucid. "You're in heat."

"Please, please," Danny begs incoherently. He curls in against to inhale against his alpha gland and Steve feels a rush of guilt.

"This is why you wanted to transfer," he whispers, running a soothing hand along Danny's back. "Because you were gonna go into heat."

"Im sorry," he sighs, rocking him gently from side to side. The blonde leans against his touch, purring loudly.  
He had a cat one time that went into heat, and he swears she acted just like this.

Except well, he didn't have to do this to his cat, he thinks wryly, shoving two fingers gently into Danny.

The slippery tight pulsing heat is mind blowing, and really, imagining sinking his dick into this has him almost blowing his load right there, and Danny yowls in satisfaction, tapering it off into a long exhale of relief.

"That what you needed?" He grunts, adding another finger and thrusting in and out, every once in a while pausing to hook his pointer and index finger up against what would be Danny's prostate.

Or g spot.

Not really sure what he's dealing with here.

But he's pretty sure Danny could get pregnant with his pups if he had knotted him like he'd wanted Steve to.

The thought makes him somehow harder, and he grits his teeth. Breathing steadily through his nose. 

No pups for you today, he thinks, and the alpha in his thoughts is raging, confused, against the decision not to seize the opportunity.

He adds another finger until, finally, the blonde starts to look blissfully fucked out, like he's no longer in pain. It's satisfying just to watch Danny; he's moaning softly, thrusting weakly back against the alpha's long fingers, purring and snarling or somewhere in between at times and he's turned to brace himself against the tub.

Steve keeps up his rhythm with his hand, feeling the tight ring of muscle pulsing against his knuckles.

He notices that when he presses on the spongey prostate/g-spot, Danny gasps and shutters, and absolutely gushes the clear fluid over the back of his hand. It seems like a good thing for the first round or two, like it's easing the edge off for Danny, but Christ there's so much of this fluid -- this omega stuff leaking out of Danny-- and the musky sweet scent is slowly fraying the edges of his control. It's turning Steve's world into a heady, lustful prism of want and dominance.

He blinks shaking it off, until the knot at the base of his dick starts to swell against his stomach.

"Fuck," he gasps, glancing down, because the overpowering pheromones of alpha male knot probably isn't going to help the situation.

It only takes a moment for Danny's knees to buckle, and he falls to the tile, shaking.

Steve stares, nervously shoving a towel over his erection but it doesn't seem to help. Danny starts to breathe heavier and glances up at him. His eyes are completely feral and there's a glint in those black eyes that makes Steve understand his furious intention completely.

The alpha scrambles to get out of the bathroom before the omega can try to take what he wants from the alpha, and slams the door shut and something heavy and snarling throws itself at the door on the other side. "Sorry Danny!"

He calls Joe white, because really, who else could help him with something this fucked up?

Joe doesn't answer. Gives him a text that he's on base and involved in a huge project for the rest of the day.

Steve texts as fast as he can, using his body to barricade the door as Danny starts snarling and howling to get to him.

  

xxxx

When Joe walks up the stairs to the address Steve sent him, he smells something he hasn't smelt in almost fifteen years: an omega.

An angry one.

He knocks on the door slowly and Steve answers in only a pair of cargo pants, looking like he's been wrestling a damn tiger.

Joe gives him a once over. "God almighty, McGarrett, please tell me that is not a feral omega I smell in this apartment!"

"I'd prefer not to lie to you sir," he sighs, turning to walk into the bedroom. Steve's partner, Williams, is handcuffed to the radiator built into the wall of the apartment, wearing only a tattered pair of boxers. The scent of omega slick is absolutely permeating the air and Joe has to put his sleeve over his nose before the stuff could start to affect him.

The small blonde man claws at the carpet, bloodying his wrist on the handcuff as he tries to move toward McGarrett.

The senior officer sighs and leans against the door way. As soon as Danny notices that Steve's not alone he hisses, baring his long fangs at Joe and lunges at him with a snarl. At this, Joe gently backs away around the corner to the kitchen.

"Okay, well, first of all, it is not okay to handcuff your half naked partner to a wall," Joe says flatly, waving his hand to gesture broadly. "Just take that as some sort of preface to this whole conversation.

"Didn't know what else to do." McGarrett follows him, giving him that look Joe has seen in combat on the first day Steve became responsible for an entire unit.

"It's okay, son, it's going to be okay," he begins quickly, putting a hand on his shoulder. " Steve tries to nod. "I take it Danny wasn't registered as an omega?"

"A beta," he says softly, nervously looking back around the corner to check on Danny.

"Well he ain't one," Joe snaps quickly, "and I'm assuming he ran out of omegadren blockers, and well, this is what feral omega looks like. Did he say anything at all to you before he went completely under?" He crosses his arms.

Steve looks evasively toward the windows, scratching the back of his neck. "He made physical... Uh... Intimate advances toward me, and kept crying to me about pups."

Joe blinks and a smile threatens to break on his lips. He shakes his head in disbelief. "I'll be, McGarrett."

Steve looks panicked. "What?"

"He's not just an omega. Whether you meant to or not, you convinced him to be _your_ omega," he chuckles, leaning against the wall. His eyes are shining. "He loves you -- only you. That young man in there would take a bullet for you."

"I'm pretty sure he'd try to put a bullet in me right now, actually."

"That's just because his instinct to breed is a little FUBAR right now and you aren't cooperating," he raises his brow. "Think about it. He's got a strapping healthy mate in his prime that's acting like he doesn't want his omega to carry his pups. That's a world rocking rejection for Danny's primal identity to deal with."

"So he's my mate? And that's why he's in heat?"

Joe cocks his head slightly, "More or less. He loves you -- a lot, judging by how upset he is that you're not in there with him." He glances around the corner of the wall and winces at the wave of distress that hits his alpha brain.

The seal paws blindly for a chair before he slumps down into it in a daze.

"Sir, we haven't even... We've never..." He makes a pointed expression, pursing his lips.

"Haven't you ever watched Animal Planet, McGarrett?" Joe asks. "Mates are chosen in all sorts of ways, not just sex. I ain't accusing you of fanning a bunch of feathers out around your ass and doin' some kind of courtship dance out under the moonlight, but I do recall you refusing to leave his side during that bomb scare," he pauses as Steve looks up to lock eyes with him. "Even when the bomb tech was telling you the thing was about to blow."

"He's my partner, Joe," Steve mutters, as if that explains it.

"Yes he is. In more ways than one." A silent beat passes between them and it's then that they realize that Danny is suspiciously quiet.

Steve frowns and quickly walks toward the bedroom. "What's he doing now?"

"Looks like he's coming down from the feral episode, but if you're not planning on putting any pups in him then he's in for a rough ride tonight," Joe sighs.

The omega has collapsed against the carpet, shivering, almost like the onset of a seizure, but his eyes are reddened and glistening. There's a depressed expression on his face. Like Steve's killed a part of him, taken the light out of his eyes as Steve walks closer to undo the handcuffs.

He slowly gathers Danny's limp form into his arms and the blonde falls against his bare chest with a sigh. "I can't do that to him. So what can I do?"

Joe frowns at the two. "Ordinarily I'd say to take him to the hospital, but his cover will be blown. Hospitals are legally required to report any omega to the registry if their social security number doesn't come up in the system."

"You bring a tranq dart?" He blurts quickly, and Joe shakes his head.

"He probably hid this so long just to stay in the field with you. Anything like an u prescribed narcotic shows up in a random drug screen and it was all for nothing." Joe pauses.

"Good point," Steve says softly. Danny's gazing up at him now, so fucking heartbroken, and Steve leans forward to kiss his forehead. He begins to rock him gently, side to side, while Joe rummages through the apartment.

Ten minutes later, he's being handed a bottle of melatonin and three bottles of water. He's instructed to keep Danny hydrated as much as possible, and it is vaguely suggested to him that he try and build a nest to keep him comfortable.

He asks how the hell he's supposed to build a nest and Joe just kind of shrugs at him, "Instinct son, I don't know. I'm sure there's a YouTube tutorial on it."

Smirking up at the senior officer, Steve shakes his head. Thank god for Joe.

Joe promises to be back later with food for the two of them and the alpha waves him off with a nod of thanks.

xxxx

Steve gently coerces Danny to sip the bottled water, and eventually carries him to the god awful fold out couch where a spring make it its life mission to rupture Steve's left kidney and or spleen.

But when Danny settles against him on his side, a tear or two drips onto Steve's bicep.

Steve freezes. He has absolutely no idea what to say, or what Danny would even understand at this point.

The alpha settles for wrapping an arm around him, kissing the back of his neck, and feels Danny guide his large palm to rest on the his lower belly, right where -- and this still blows Steve's mind -- his partner could carry his pups.

But it's empty right now.

Steve rubs the skin thoughtfully with the pad of his thumb and sighs against his skin.

"I know. Soon, Danny," the alpha breathes. "Not yet, but soon."

xxx

Joe stops by a few hours later -- knocks VERY loudly as he tentatively steps into the apartment -- and tosses the alpha a few high calorie meal shakes and prenatal vitamins.

Steve takes the vitamins and shoots a side eye glance at his senior officer, "Joe, what in the hell."

The older man raises his hands in the air in surrender as he backs out of the apartment. "I'm just sayin. Possibility."

"Cute," Steve mutters, glaring at him as he crosses the apartment to shove the door closed. Danny is watching him like a spooked cat, having caught the smell of a strange alpha when the door opened, and it's obvious from his behavior that he still isn't all there.

"It's okay, babe, you're fine," he sighs, sitting on the edge of the bed to open a protein shake. He wants to laugh at the fucking irony when his hot headed pistol of a partner moves to rub on him like a cat.

Danny starts kissing his neck, mouths at his chest even, and Steve startles when his lips close over one of his nipples. "Hey hey hey -- no," he gently persuades him to turn his attention to a protein shake, and the blonde downs almost half of it before suddenly knocking it out of his hand, lunging for him, and trying to pin him down and straddle him.

Steve snarls, flipping them both on an alpha reflex, and God fucking damn it he's hard again.

He instinctively finds himself grinding against Danny's groin and he grits his teeth, forcing himself to stop. "You fucking planned that."

Danny's lips curl into a fanged, smug grin. "Alpha wants pups."

"Alpha wants a conversation with a consenting adult," Steve sighs, rubbing at his brow; "Nice try."

He rolls off of his partner, and tries to think of crime scenes instead of how badly he wants to fuck Danny into this godforsaken fold-out mattress. The omega's boxers are soaked in the clear slick fluid and it makes him feel like he's about to claw out of his own skin.

As soon as he lays down again with a frustrated sigh, two fangs sink into his bicep. He roars out in pain, scaring the shit out of the omega who makes a bolt right for the front door.

"No!" Steve tackles him in the kitchen.

His mate is distressed and whining and Steve's shaking as he pins him down to the linoleum, biting the inside of his own cheeks, because his alpha brain is telling him to bite down on the back of Danny's neck. It's telling the alpha fuck his omega into submission.

This is going to be a long damn night.

xxx

Steve wakes when the sun hits his eyes through Danny's cheap, dusty blinds. For a moment he has no idea where he is until Danny stirs against his chest.

The blonde is curled up against him with his head under the alpha's chin.  
Everything hurts.

He sighs a wheezing groan as he tries to move and thinks better of it. If he looks as bad as he feels, then it's understandable why Danny almost screams when he opens his eyes.

The detective shoves away from him and only then realizes that his wrists are zip tied behind him.

"The fuck happened? Were we kidnapped? What is this? Jesus Christ," he pants, awkwardly flopping to his feet to run toward the kitchen, presumably for some scissors.

Steve glances around the studio; it's completely trashed.

Some of the furniture is broken, there's scratches all over the paint of the door and the bathroom walls. The handcuff is ominously dangling from the radiator and there are stains of blood, protein shake, and slick all over the bed.

He's been in whore-house heroin dens that were more appealing than this shit show.

Danny steps in the door way to the bedroom, hands free, and just gapes around the room until his blue eyes fall on McGarret.

"You're hurt," he says quickly, rushing closer.

The alpha is silent as Danny looks at the scratches, the bruising, and the bite wounds. At least some of last night must be coming back to him because Danny suddenly goes very quiet and still.

Xxx

  
"Did we -- did you and I..." He looks at the bed and the fact that they're both almost naked.

Steve shakes his head. "No intercourse." And that's a damn loaded answer. Danny's skin flushes red. "You went into heat. Apparently. Tried to get me to get you pregnant," he huffs a wry laugh, "I said no. You weren't happy about it."

Danny runs his hands over his face and up through his hair, looking around the apartment with wide eyes. "Steve, I'm so... So sorry."

"It's not your fault," Steve says slowly, pulling himself to his feet to limp over to him.

Danny leans forward against him, sighing at how comforted he is just by the smell of Steve, and swallows hard against the lump in his throat at what he feels obliged to say. "There's... Treatment and uh, pills and stuff. To break an accidental bond like this."

Steve pulls back from him; "Is that what you want?"

Danny blushes pink, "Well, I... No, Steve. I think we make a pretty good team."

Steve's lips curl into a grin. "We do." He leans down, guiding Danny's chin up and kisses him slowly and softly on his lips.

Danny's eyes start watering -- fucking heat hormones-- and Steve brushes a tear away with his thumb.

"Don't tell anyone what I am," Danny begs quietly, eyes pleading up at him. "You can't. You can't tell them; they won't treat me the same."

"I won't, Danny," he promises, hugging him tight to comfort him. "But if you're as serious as you were last night about wanting pups, then we've got to talk about this."

Danny sighs and doesn't answer. "I've had a few heats over the last year. None this bad. All I remember clearly is trying to take a cold shower and I must've blacked out."

"So they're getting worse?"

"It's what happens to unbred omegas around my age. The heat fever..." He sighs, wrapping his arms around himself. "And I don't want to talk about pups unless you're fucking serious Steve because that crap fucks with my head."

Steve frowns at him.

"What like baby crazy?"

"Okay, first of all, you jerk, never say those two words in my general direction again," he snapped, "And second of all, it's an omega thing that you will never, never understand, alright? Because honestly I don't even understand it. So just don't even try."

Steve tries to hide the smile playing at the corners of his lips as he stares at the omega expectantly. "Danny, I -- I want to understand. Enlighten me?" He holds up both hands in an inviting gesture.

"Fine. But I can't help it -- any of it. It's just, you start talking pups, getting stuff ready, planning whatever, it doesn't change me -- my rational mind, but it screws with my instincts," he mumbles, blushing all the way to his ears.

"You do know that alphas get instinctual urges too. Right?"

"NO, you're understanding me here! I mean I'll start going feral. It's not just urges at that point, Steve, it's a blackout. I lose myself; that side just takes over."

"Danny." Steve pauses to turn his arm slightly to pointedly display the teeth marks slowly healing on his arm, then gestures to the claw marks all over his torso. It also does not escape Danny's attention that Steve is still covered in blood and bruises. He looks up with a knowing expression; "I get it, babe."

Danny buys his brow into one of his hands and rubs at his eyes before gritting his teeth. He has absofuckinglutely nothing more to say about this fiasco until can gather the nerve to carve the words "I'm sorry" into his own damn chest with a knife, because that sounds like at least a good start.

But Steve leans in to kiss him slowly on the temple and begins to gently lead him toward the shower. The entire bathroom floor is dried with a clear film of omega slick and random blood smears, and Jesus fuck Danny is glad he barely remembers anything.

As they both step under the warm spray, the blonde just stands there numbly; the hot water starts to ease some of the ache out of his sore body. Steve starts to lather shampoo into Danny's hair for him, smiling down at him softly.

"How did you resist the pheromones? And I must have been begging for your knot." He locks eyes with Steve. "As in snarling and howling."

"You were. Believe me Danny, it's an understatement when I say it wasn't easy to tell you no," Steve admits. "At that point, though, you had only been my Omega for an hour or so, at least as far as I knew. But you've been my partner and best friend for years. And I couldn't make the decision for you to carry my pups, knowing how much it would change your life."

"Steve, the other 99.99% of Alphas don't feel that way about omegas."

He pauses with a sigh to gently brush back his wet hair from his face. "Look. We're equals, at work and at home; we always will be. Yes I love you, I do want to protect you, take care of you if you'd let me... but I know I don't own you. We're partners, Danno. I'm not going to let anything happen if the registry finds out about you."

Danny is silently considering his words, feeling so fucking touched that for once in his life he's speechless. So instead of talking he just nods and leans against Steve, hugging him fiercely when the alpha rubs his back.

Danny shuts his eyes. He feels sore, exhausted, and dehydrated. But safe. He finally feels safe.

"Good thing you kept ripping up my transfer requests," he mumbles with a smirk into Steve's neck.

The alpha's skin flushes a deep pink and he hangs his head in an endearing mockery of shame, murmuring across Danny's ear as he gives his arms a squeeze. "You should've told me that you knew."

"I had to be sure you wanted me to stay for the right reason," Danny replies softly.

"The right reasons. Listen to you," Steve sighs rolling his eyes as his hand travels south over Danny's torso, fingertips roaming and memorizing. "I killed my plant for you."

"Wait -- what?"

"Never mind."

Xxxxx


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Steve, why is there a camel-flea trap in your kitchen?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, I couldn't resist. And uh... Neither can Steve. 
> 
> Unbeta'd. 
> 
> NOTE: >
> 
> = the pointy arrows indicate that the words are being heard over a radio unit.

For two months nothing goes terribly wrong.

xxx

After the transfer request mess and fiasco that was his heat (the bloody handcuff on his radiator spooked some of the maids so badly that no one has come to get his laundry bag in a week), Danny wakes up at least twice a week to find Steve in his bed in the morning.

The blonde always just laughs, curling closer to Steve's muscular body and sighs contentedly against him. Danny also usually asks him what time he snuck in, but Steve always just smiles and kisses him gently in response before he can ask again...

The omega is starting to wonder if it's because Steve may not actually remember _consciously_ deciding to drive (or run?) over. It's a chilling thought that someone with Steve's size, strength, and skillset may be doing anything on primal auto-pilot

But then there's always these pancakes with the crispy ring around the edges like his grandmother used to make him when he was young, and, hell, Freddie Krueger could sleepwalk into his bed and he'd be okay with it if he cooked this well.

However, it helps that Steve is still his favorite person to wake up next to.

Or on top of.

Or under.

xxx

Steve researches as much as he can on omegas, before a letter mysteriously arrives at his desk from The Hawaiian Registry of Endangered Subgender Humans (THRESH) inquiring about his sudden interest. They politely inform him that if he is aiding or abetting an unregistered omega, there will be legal ramifications.

Steve stares at the letter with a hand over his mouth, and seriously considers having the SWAT team do a sweep of his office with an RF detector, until he remembers that technically his work laptop is state property.

He asks Joe to call him from a secure line, and he's slightly ticked off that, for five minutes after Steve first explains about the letter, Joe laughs that "that's the damned men-in-blackiest thing that I've ever actually heard of the government actually doing to someone, and really, Steve, I've seen a LOT of Big-Brotherly-Love gone wrong."

Joe doesn't ask about Danny and him, always respectful of Steve's privacy, but promises that he'll do the military equivalent of calling-a-guy-who-knows-a-guy-who-knows-a-guy, and, in two days, a brown paper package arrives on his doorstep.

He curiously folds back the paper and lid of the box, and finds inside three faded books about omegas.

The package and its contents all smell like a Moroccan camel market.

He doesn't ask.

xxx

Three days later, Steve has to make an online purchase for camel-flea traps, and he wonders what THRESH will think of him now.

xxx

It turns out that Danny's been using smuggled omegadren blockers. It _also_ turns out that it's very awkward to have to pretend to not notice a small smuggling ship in harbor while HPD is radioing them about said ship and its location.

Three Asian men stare up at them with widened eyed -- holding cases of contraband adrenal blockers -- and watch them, as still as statues, waiting for Steve or Danny to yell for them to freeze or pull their guns.

"You're sure, Danny?" Steve hisses, glaring down at him for what they're going to have to do. "You can't just wear alpha deodorant?"

"You want me to get gangbanged and knocked up by some knotbrained alphas in rut while I'm walking home from a bar if the deodorant wears off?" Danny snaps viciously, and below the anger, Steve can see a glint of fear in his eyes at the thought. "You can only get them by prescription from an omega specialist and my license says beta."

The alpha blinks and swallows, realizing that the idea of being discovered or attacked are constant fears his mate endures daily, and Steve just mutters some sort of consent to _overlook_ this one.

His mate nods in thanks, meets his eyes because Danny probably knows how hard this is for him.

"Let's just uh... As you were," Danny coughs, waving to the men. "Maybe at night next time, you know? Be kinda covert about it..."

Steve just shakes his head in disbelief at what his life has become, and knows he sounds like an _idiot_ when he insists that neither he nor Danny can see the ship at the docks.

Even though it's pulled up on satellite.

_< <I mean... Are you sure, Commander McGarret? We can uh... We can see the ship, sir. Should be at twelve o'clock.>>_

"I repeat, **no** ship at twelve o'clock. Copy?" Steve locks eyes awkwardly with Danny he motions for him to be more convincing .

_< <Sir are you looking at the correct twelve o'clock? Clocks can be...tricky.>>_

Danny grabs the radio "There's no fucking ship here, Barry. Are you insinuating that we would lie about this?"

There's a beat of silence.

_< <No sir. Copy that. Bad Intel.>>_

The pair sigh in relief, and Danny shoves the radio harshly back into Steve's hands before reaching up to thread his fingers through his blonde hair.

Steve pinches the bridge of his nose and exhales a long breath.

It's as if his moral compass is now a Danny compass. When did that happen? He was trained to avoid doing this -- to avoid putting subjective needs above the objective. But the idea of someone assaulting his little mate just because he's an omega makes Steve's fangs start to pop.

He at least has to draw the line when he hears the omega trying to buy some bottles off the guys.

"Danny, not on the job, not on the job! Lady Justice would be crying if she saw you," Steve mutters, because really, this whole situation grates against his conscience as a military man and as Five-0.

Danny shoots him a withering look, so Steve just starts to tug him by his vest back to the car.

"Carry on," the alpha yells to the three men and they scurry to move the boat out to sea to presumably return at a different dock that night.

He goes to hold Danny's hand in the Camaro, but the detective pulls it back.

"Oh, no. Not on the job, Steven ' _Patron Saint of Justice'_ McGarret," Danny mutters.

  
xxx

 

Danny forgives him in a week when he brings him malasadas in bed, and gives him a massage until he's purring. "Thou art forgiven, Patron Saint of Magic Hands and Donuts."

"Mmm, good. Salvation." Steve smiles, nuzzling the side of his mate's face, marking him with his scent.

The alpha's chest is puffed out, proud of himself for providing for his omega, and Steve lets himself indulge in primal bliss while it lasts.

 

xxx

 

The urge to bond bite Danny comes and goes; sometimes he feels the need when there are other alphas around, sometimes when there's danger. But they haven't talked about that yet. 

 Danny might see a traditional bond bite (which would be followed by Steve knotting his mate to complete the process) as archaic, like most of society does these days. So the alpha hasn't brought it up. They haven't talked about the bite, their future, or pups. And they've messed around _some_ in the bedroom -- but Steve's never knotted him before.

So Steve ends up having to see a doctor for all of the times he's had to bite down on the inside of his bottom lip.

When the doctor asks him about any other symptoms, Steve doesn't mention that he's been dreaming of shoving his small mate down on the bed, sinking his teeth into his neck, and knotting him full of come until he's round and heavy with his pups.  

He also doesn't mention that sometimes, during these dreams, he wakes up and realizes his fangs have popped, he's kneeling over Danny, and he's starting to knot.

Looking away evasively, Steve gives a brief explanation of stress at work and sexual frustration with his new beta girlfriend. At this, the doctor nods knowingly, writing him a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication.

Steve rips it into 36 frustrated pieces and tosses them into the first trash can he sees outside of the doctor's office.

xxx

Steve wakes up the last Sunday of their second month as unofficial "mates" to find Danny sitting uneasily on the edge of his bed.

"Babe?" He murmurs gently, lifting a hand to run fingertips down the blonde's arm to stir him from deep thought. Steve's bungalow is only just beginning to fill with morning light, so it has to be pretty early still.

Danny had been staring at the blankets and pillows, which, now that Steve notices, have been arranged in a circle around them.

Like a nest.

"Oh," Steve breathes in surprise, looking around quickly. "Did I -- " he looks over at the blonde, who looks like he's seen a ghost. Danny's hand is over his stomach for a brief moment until the detective catches the alpha looking at it. "Sorry. Was this your...or my.."

"That wasn't me," Danny replies quietly. "Only alphas build nests." He nervously locks eyes with Steve before he sighs and leaves toward the kitchen.

Steve feels his skin redden as he bites down on his lip, staring back over the nest he apparently made.

If he's not careful about shit like this, Danny could swing into an early heat. But how does Steve stop himself from doing something he's not aware he's doing?

The Navy didn't teach him that.

He looks, frowning toward the kitchen, and is about to ask Danny to come in and talk about it. But, suddenly, the Jersey detective is standing in the doorway with his eyes narrowed.

"Steve, why do you have camel-flea traps in the kitchen?"

"It's a long story." Steve doesn't want to stress his mate out that the Registry flagged him for his internet history on a work computer. 

"Steven McGarrett, are you hiding a camel in this house?"

Steve bursts into lazy laughter, flopping back against the bed.

"Yes, Danny. I'm hiding a huge, smelly, hairy animal in my house."

There's a beat of silence, and he can't blame Danny for not trusting him on this because, really, Steve has kept stranger things hidden away.  

Finally, after Danny gives him an appraising look, the blonde turns back toward the kitchen.

 "You shouldn't talk about Jerry that way, Steve," Danny chuckles playfully over his shoulder, and Steve huffs a quiet laugh into the back of his hand.

xxx

 

But then after two months, something _does_ go terribly wrong.

 

xxx

 

There are pieces of the ceiling falling around them -- an ornate copper tile ceiling -- as if being in a gunfight isn't bad enough.

The lobby of this place is all shiny granite floors and dark cherry walls and they're completely shooting it up because some whack job amateur thief actually thought robbing a dental office during broad daylight is a fantastic idea.

Kono's fatigued voice echoes from their radios.  
_ <<Dentists can't have enough gold on hand for fillings and caps to warrant this kind of stuff.>>_

"Kono, each set of tools runs for ten grand and up, and a facility this big has got to have at least a hundred sets on hand," Steve yells, jamming his thumb on the unit on his hip.

A ceiling tile crashes to the floor with a loud _THWACK_.

< _< Black market dentistry pirates? Are you fucking kidding me? This is why I came in on a Saturday? Oh just let me kill this guy>>_

"We need to bring him in alive and get him on conspiracy. He'll rat out everyone he knows in black market medicine -- could lead to the organ thieves we've been catching wind of for weeks. Do **NOT** kill him," Steve responds with a sigh.

"What kind of dentist is this anyway," Danny mutters, reloading his gun as he looks around. "Smells like _eucalyptus_. I hate eucalyptus."

"It's a dental spa," Steve snaps between firing. Outlining the guy with bullets to try and scare him into surrendering.

Danny takes a brief second to sniff the air, and catches the scent of strange alpha.

This guy smells insanely stupid but very strong. Definitely a hired thug. But he can't smell anything else about him because of the damn eucalyptus screwing with his senses.

"The hell is a dental spa?" Danny pulls a face firing around a corner at a perp who's pressed the emergency stop in the elevator with the doors half open.

"I dunno, Danny, it's supposed to be more --" he pauses, yanking Danny back before the guy he's firing at can fire at the omega while he leans to shoot at the elevator guy. He sighs. "More appealing."

 _THWACK_!

Another ceiling tile crashes to the ground a few feet away, erupting in a smoke storm of plaster dust. It startles him.

The omega coughs, waving a hand in front of his face to wave away this white fuckery that he has no patience for. "Oh this -- this right here is appealing. Yeah, totally experiencing some appeal over here."

The alpha glances up at the rest of the copper. "Pretty sure the ceiling is gonna rain down on us if we wait much longer, Chin -- can you see if he has any hostages?"

The radio buzzes at the alpha's hip.

_< <Interference from heat reflecting off the copper, brah, I can't see a thing with the thermal cam>>_

"You can't just add the word spa after something and make it more appealing. Makes no god damned sense what so ever," Danny says, eyes following Kono's reflection in the copper ceiling from her sniper perch on the third floor. "Next thing you know you'll have a DMV spa. Airport security spa. Gas-station bathroom spa."

"Jesus Danny, focus!" Steve pulls Danny out of the way a second time from a bullet whizzing past. He glares at the omega. "Get behind me."

"Don't you even start that up again, Caveman. We talked about this!" Danny turns and locks eyes with him. It's not exactly smart to challenge a trigger happy alpha, but Danny is sick of this bullshit and wants to go home. "You want me to build a little nest while I'm back there, Alpha?"

Danny can hear that Steve's baring his teeth as his snarls over to him; "I'm telling you as your boss and partner, not as your alpha."

Danny doesn't feel well; it's been a terrible fucking morning.

His day started its sharp decline when he dropped his last omegadren blocker down the drain of the sink.  

Now, his hormones are out of whack, and his omega pheromones will be radiating from his skin until he can take another blocker. But, to make matters worse, his supplier communicated to him that stricter regulations on scent blockers (to prevent fraud) had stalled a shipment of the pills that were to be smuggled into Hawaii that afternoon.

He should've just stolen a case when he had the chance, Lady Justice be damned.

So he's got a twenty four hour migraine to deal with, as well as a hormonal alpha male who probably doesn't even realize he's picking up Danny's pheromones under all of this eucalyptus stink.

And then there's this asshole _shooting_ at him for half an hour.

"Just let me get the elevator guy," the blonde grunts, firing a few more rounds. "Guy is dug in there like some kind of -- _ugh_ \-- elevator tick."

"Danny, God damn it! Get behind me, that's an order! Kono can handle him," Steve growls, yanking on the strap at the top of his tack vest like a handle.

He's so intent on pulling his mate away from the dangerous situation that he doesn't hear the rumbling rupture in the ceiling above him or sense the rush of air until the thing's almost on them.

Even then, at the last second, his alpha overtakes him, and he shoves Danny as hard as he can across the granite hallway.

The blonde yelps out in confusion, slamming into the opposite wall as the plaster sheet impacts against Steve's skull so hard that he doesn't even feel it before he's knocked out cold.

  
xxx

 

"Steve!" Danny yells, springing forward to lift the heavy plaster and copper tile off of his mate. "Oh no, no, no," he stutters when the alpha doesn't respond to the movement. He shakes his shoulder and then tugs him behind the corner of the stone wall.

He doesn't wake up.

"No, you do not get to do this! Not after it took years for you to make a move on me."

Feeling for a pulse, Danny accidentally nicks his skin with his claws that have pricked through the tips of his tac gloves. "Don't you fucking do this to me," he breathes again, feeling his heart freeze in his chest; his clawed fingertips can't feel anything.

And then, finally.

A pulse.

Sighing in relief, Danny rips his radio from his hip. "Alpha down, alpha down! I need an ambo for a concussion on site! Unconscious. Moving to a secure location!"

He curls his fingers into Steve's vest straps, groaning and huffing at the effort it takes just to drag him a short distance to a nearby door. Shooting the lock, Danny kicks it open. It's an office supply closet. Smells like paper, ink, and now alpha stress.  
  
The scent makes his skin feel tight as he kicks the door closed.

 

xxx

 

It isn't until Danny can bring himself to look around the dark room, illuminated in tall shadows by the glow from under the door, that he realizes how bad of a choice this tiny, cramped space was.

He's clutching onto Steve's unconscious form, huddling Steve's shoulders up against his chest while he sits, leaning back against a wall. After only a few minutes, he finds himself trying to ignore the increasingly pervasive feeling that the walls are closing in around him.

Shamelessly burying his face in his Alpha's neck from behind him, Danny inhale Steve's strong scent and soothes his fried nerves.

"I'm okay, we're okay. We're fine," he whispers slowly, and, _no_ , his voice is not wavering slightly.

He grits his teeth against a whole body shiver, brings up a hand to yank his shirt collar away from his neck, and finds that he's soaked in sweat. Fuck.

Danny bites down on the inside of his cheek, trying not to fidget. ' _What if there's not enough air flow for two people in here,'_ he thinks. And he can't stop the onslaught of questions his mind is helpfully conjuring about the situation.

_'What if we're slowly using up all of the oxygen and suffocating from our own carbon dioxide? Would I be able to know or would I just slowly pass out and die?'_

Oh, this was definitely a mistake.

"God," Danny pants shallowly, he can feel it. The air's getting thinner, and his heart's racing, and he's hyperventilating, and --

Steve shifts against him with a growl, reaching up at his sore head.

"Sweet, baby _Jesus._  You're alive," Danny exhales in relief, but it edges off into a low whine of discomfort that he tries to stifle.

Steve hasn't said anything.

Danny scents more of his own distress filling the small closet at Steve's silence, and, really, that must be overwhelming to the alpha.

However, for the moment, all Danny can do is hold on to his mate fiercely, and force himself to breath, because there's now someone shooting right outside of the closet -- probably with their own fucking guns.

The alpha growls again, turning slowly to nuzzle at his neck and Danny huffs against his skin.

"So in my uh, urgency to rescue you, I definitely forgot that I'm claustrophobic, and I've rescued you into a tiny coffin sized room that is very unsettling to me," he mutters matter of factly. "And thus I need to get out of I'm going to pop my claws again and start climbing up the walls."

The alpha doesn't seem to register what he's said until he shifts up into a sitting position, turns, and reaches out suddenly (with a surprising amount of force) to pull him down onto the floor of the closet. Before he can ask the Alpha what he's doing, his familiar heavy weight settles onto Danny's body.

Frowning, Danny grunts at the action and leans his head back against the cold floor. "Babe, I'm not sure that this is gonna--"

Steve growls low against him and something in Danny innately quiets, curling inward.

The omega grimaces as familiar,but long suppressed fragments of his subgender rise up in a haze of urges to bare his neck and hide from the world under his powerful mate. It grates against the desire of his rational mind to scramble toward a more open space, and fuck he feels so torn.

He doesn't know whether he's having trouble breathing from Steve protectively pinning him down, or if it's just that he can't get enough of the alpha's scent.

He needs to get out of his closet -- he vaguely remembers that.

Remembers something about how not taking his meds that day means that this is bad but all he can think about is -- _God_ that scent.

 _Alpha_.

He wants to breathe it in and integrate it into every single one of his cells, become immersed in this alpha inside and out, carry his pups, nest together, settle in his powerful arms for life and death and whatever seizes upon them afterwards.

It's when he feels the tips of sharp canine teeth against his neck that a tingling fear rouses him into lucidity.

"Steve?"

xxx

_His small mate is distressed._

_There are other alphas in this building and he can hear yelling and gunfire outside of this den he woke up in._

_This is a threat, the unknown is a threat to him and his mate._

_Another alpha could try to take his omega and the thought fills him with a rage of possessiveness._

_He pulls his mate down to the floor and lays over him, covering him with his scent to comfort him and shield him from whatever is happening.  
_

_Danny is his omega. His to care for, protect, breed._

_Danny hasn't been bond bitten by anyone, and if one of these other alphas manages to get to him first, he will lose his mate to a new alpha._

_That cannot happen._

_The alpha leans down to bite his mate at the base of his shoulder and his neck but the small omega struggles in confusion against him._

_He doesn't understand that Steve needs to protect him from the other alphas; he reaches behind his neck to grab him in an omega grip, frowning intently to be sure that he has done it correctly, and growls low in his throat._

_It works._

_The omega stops moving, seizing up below him up as the grip temporarily immobilizes him._

_He looks afraid, but the bite on his gland will protect him. His mate will be safe, will be bonded to him in the only way that matters to his kind._

_The alpha looks into the omega's eyes, slowly, studying his panicked gaze._

_"Mine," he grumbles low in his throat. He nuzzles that beautiful face for a moment, tightening the grip, then uses one of his fangs to tear away at the shirt covering his frightened mate's omega gland._

_The smaller creature is afraid still, and it stirs his hunting reflex, but this prey is precious to him._

_The alpha stretches his jaws wide and sinks his fangs into the curve at the base of the omega's neck._

 

xxx

 

At the first shout over his radio unit that the Alpha is down, Chin rushes in, the dutiful beta arriving to act as back up.

He stops to holster the guns are abandoned in the hallway, and, suddenly, some _lolo hupo_ in an elevator is shooting at him.

"Kono," he yells into his radio.

  
_< <You come to join the party? Where's Steve?>>_

"Shoot the elevator button panel," he yells.

<< _Shoot what, >>_

"The elevator button panel -- **shoot** it," he repeats, and finally a quick shot from her perch makes a few sparks fly out of the panel.

The doors slide shut, effectively detaining the guy.

Between the two of them -- and the fact that the Alpha on the stairs is now outnumbered and almost out of bullets-- they're able to get close enough to dart him with a tranquilizer, and he is out.

Kono sighs in relief, brushing plaster dust and sweat from her forehead. "Quicker than laughing gas, huh?" She smirks.

Chin shakes his head at her. "You know I get enough puns from Max as it is, cuz. But good shot!"

She nods in a quick thanks before she startles at the fact that Danny and Steve aren't in the lobby. "Is Steve with the medics? What happened?"

Chin locks eyes with her grimly before he calls the rest of the team in. As the lead beta, he's the next up in command, but it's a little nerve wracking to have everyone gather in the lobby and look to him for direction.

"Find Steve and Danny," he instructs. "At least one of them is injured and neither is responding to radio. Their guns were left in that hallway."

Something just feels _off_ about this.

 

xxx

 

Danny fully expects the bite to hurt like a bitch, but jumps as he instead feels the seering pleasure thrum through his body.

"Oh this, this is bad," he hisses, eyes pleading at the ceiling. Pain would've made it easy to show some restraint and be the voice of reason here.

But no.

 _No_.

Instead, there's blood soaking into his shirt and he feels as high as a kite.

And yeah, it's infuriatingly annoying that his omega instincts are responding so warmly to a feral that has zero control over six feet and two hundred pounds of dangerously dominant Navy Seal.

He can't help but hums in satisfaction when his mate grinds against him. Hmm.

Yeah.

Annoying.

The detective lets out a wavering gasp as the alpha tears the seam of his dress pants and man handles him like a rag doll onto his hands and knees. The jarring movement brings clarity through his haze of hormones; “Dammit, Steve, those were expensive pants!”

He sighs at the ridiculousness of this situation, despite how painfully hard his cock is growing at the feeling of cool air against his hot, dripping hole. "And this is the epitome of unprofessional!"

His body is slicked up and ready in response to the woodsy, intimidating alpha musk of his partner, and his own musk must be equally alluring, because only seconds later, Danny feels hot breath against his exposed pulsing hole.

"Really Steve? In a fucking closet at a dentist office? During work? When you snap out of this I will _never_ let you live this d--"

When Steve’s warm, wet tongue gently slides over his hole, Danny bucks violently in surprise. Then the alpha is moaning, trying to lap up all of his omega slick, and the blonde writhes through the invasive pleasure. "Oh, fuck!"

The alpha growls in frustration as he noses for more of the addictive omega slick, before his hot desperate mouth seals over the omega’s swollen entrance to start drilling and swirling his tongue deeper and deeper.

Danny arches his back in ecstasy, seeing stars as his partner wriggles his huge tongue into his slippery, pulsing hole. "H-holy Jesus fuck babe, you're gonna kill me," Danny sputters, wincing his eyes shut and gasping against the floor as his hips start to shake.

"Awwgh!" he hisses in surprise, because Steve is suddenly wrenching his cheeks apart, spreading him wide. "Fuck that hurts, baby! That's sensitive skin!"

Danny tries to scramble away, but Steve holds him firmly in place by his hips and in a second he's shoving more of his hot alpha tongue into his greedy hole until he's dripping with saliva and more slick.

It's warm, too wet, too _good,_  and Danny cries out helplessly in ecstasy at the electrifying, mind numbing pleasure accosting him from his spine to his fingertips from the ministrations to his over sensitive hole. Steve growls proudly and licks into him determinedly, opening Danny up, exciting him.

When that is no longer enough, Steve begins to shove an impressively long finger into him and Danny cries out, quivering like a bow string, because Steve is reaching around inside him for the gland that his alpha brain knows is there.

Danny pants in anticipation until an electrifying orgasm seizes him out of the blue from the massage on his gland.

He gasps out a ragged plea for mercy and tries to scramble away. Steve growls and grips the back of his neck again, yanking him back as the omega clenches around the twisting finger that had begun to stroke and forcibly milk his glands.

"You f-fucking _animal_ \-- I love you," he pants, feeling his knees buckle. "But I'm gonna pepper spray you if you try to make come again." The alpha digs his nails into his hips to keep him upright, hand smoothing out to run over his back to rub along his electrified skin. "Agh... _Aaah God."_

The swell of hormones in his system is slowly making him lose his grasp on reality, but somehow he still knows he should be terrified.

He should be, because Steve could attack someone if they walk in, could sink his fangs into their neck and just start tearing. The state would send Danny's mate to Alpha Rehabilitation, where alpha's went to be evaluated and received cognitive therapy after committing a hormone induced crime.

But right now his overstimulated body is suffering from the relentless pleasure, helplessly shivering. The blonde claws his fingers against the floor, panting and pleading for relief while wishing it would never end.

With one arm, the alpha then wrenches his own pants down, shredding his boxers with a sharp nail, until his alpha cock teases pulsing and hot against Danny's entrance.

“Gonna breed you,” Steve grunts, gripping a hand around to press his hand possessively over the omega’s lower belly. "Give you what you want."

The omega hates himself for it as he involuntarily lets out a desperate whine for Steve's knot, a gut-wrenching sound, and the Alpha mistakes his desperation for distress or maybe it really is distress.

Because Danny should say _no_.

The alpha leans forward to lick the back of his neck, tasting his pheromones as he tries to decipher Danny's intentions.

He knows he should wrench back an arm to elbow the feral alpha in the face, snap him out of it, or howl in distress until someone hears him.

Because even though there's practically no chance of Steve knocking Danny up when he's not in heat, the omega knows that they shouldn't even risk it. If the Registry finds out about him, they'll force Danny to participate in some sort of research to figure out why omegas are dying out.

He grimaces at the thought of being housed for days in a facility that smells like alcohol prep-pads and stress, and at the thought of monthly phone calls or diet and exercise routines.

But more upsetting than that, than the heat frenzy twisting up his lower stomach, is Danny's recognition of the fact that he could never emotionally survive being separated from this tall, handsome, car-stealing napalm junkie.

He spends half a second remembering his miserable fucking life on this island before Steve, and it's enough to make him grit his teeth again better reasoning.

"Fuck, Steve, just do it! Do it!" He chokes on a sob and slams back impatiently.

The alpha sinks into him to the hilt, filling him so fucking full that he can't breathe.

Danny scrambles to seek purchase on the floor slicked with his own blood. But the exertion and blood loss, combined with an onslaught of hormones intoxicating him into submission, are weakening him.

Gasping shallowly, Danny watches shadows dance across his field of vision as his alpha thrusts blindingly deep up into him and finally starts to knot him.

Finally.

He grunts out a small moan as his eyelids lower in the feverish haze; his omega brain is purring. But his rational mind is heavy with the sinking fear of what Steve might do when he comes down from his feral episode.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's more to this universe. I guess this ends the prequel? Can y'all tell organization is not my strong point? -_____- perhaps that should be my resolution. 
> 
> "I resolve to stop confusing the hell out of people." 
> 
> I'd give up caffeine, but I'm pretty sure the point of New Years ain't to kill people.
> 
> So no.  
>    
>  **[UPDATE 2/15/16:]**
> 
> If you liked it and want more, head on over to the first chapter of the newly posted sequel (which was the entire reason "WOPD" was written):  
>  **  
> [ **A Burning Orchard**](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5759443)**


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